Before Silent Hill f‘s release, Japanese actress Konatsu Kato talked about how she felt her own sanity slipping while providing the voice and motion capture performance for protagonist Hinako Shimizu. Now that enough time has passed, she has delved deeper into why she struggled with the role so much.
Note that major spoilers for Silent Hill f follow.
In a recent interview with Famitsu, Kato describes her initial recording sessions as “smooth.” However, much like the Silent Hill games themselves, subsequent recordings started to become more psychologically demanding as the story progressed and branched out.
Kato recalls doing the same scenes more than once, but with noticeable changes to her lines and emotions, alluding to the cutscene differences in New Game Plus mode and those based on player choices. During these recording sessions, Kato says she found herself questing “What am I, what is Hinako doing now, and where?”
When it came to recording the two versions of Hinako (especially the parts where the two interact with each other), Kato became confused and lost track of who she was, both as Hinako and as real-life self. “There were times when I would burst into tears without even thinking about anything. The more time I spent facing Hinako, the more my confusion grew. I remember there were days when I felt like I was going crazy.”
The process seems to have been genuinely psychologically overwhelming for Kato. When asked about Silent Hill f’s story, the actress revealed that she doesn’t remember much about the project and working on it, only that she recalls fragments. Her most vivid remaining memory of her role is the feeling of “not knowing where I was or who I was.”
That said, Kato is impressed by Hinako’s character, citing her diverse perspectives despite still being a high school student. However, she never wants to meet Hinako or enter the world of Silent Hill f, commenting that the very thought of encountering the character makes her feel like she’ll lose her mind. Should Kato ever find herself in such a world, she says she “would want to disappear in a second.”
Silent Hill f is available for the PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S.
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